IMAGEMAKERS OF THE FUTURE!! (part1)

September 29, 2009

Since that day a few months ago, when I sat down with some friends from the Bali Creative Community to see if anyone was interested in doing a major photo festival for Indonesian photography in Bali in 2010, things started rolling fast. Fairly quickly the board established itself: Rudolf Dethu of Suicide Glam, Ayip of Matamera design, Marlowe Bandem as well as Robin Malau (who came on temporarily to help us out with IT). Soon some of my fellow “senior” Indonesian photographers, Firman Ichsan, Oscar Motuloh, Tara Sosrowardoyo, and Darwis Triadi were on board as co-curators.

From overseas Raghu Rai (Magnum, India), Linda Connors (who teaches photography at San Fransisco’s School of Fine Arts and works with 8×10″), and John Stanmeyer of VII expressed serious interest in participating. All three are very inspiring photographers and we are thrilled to have their support!

We did a little teaser at the digital forum event, FGD, in Jakarta at the beginning of August 2009, and then Alila hotel Ubud generously offered us a venue for our first pre-event, Imagemakers of the Future, an exhibition featuring young upcoming Indonesian photographers. That event will take place this coming 10th of October at 5 pm at the Alila Ubud.

In the coming weeks I will feature some of the photographer’s involved on this blog. Today we’ll start with Andika Wahyu. (the original Indonesian is featured below)

I, Andika Wahyu, was born in Kebumen, Central Java on the 14th of July 1983. I first became interested in photography because of my admiration for the photos
I saw in newspapers when I was primary school. I had so many questions running around in my mind. Slowly the answers revealed themselves when I
Became more involved in photography during my time in the student activity unit,
FCC (Fisip Fotografi Club) at the Universitas Sebelas Maret in Surakarta
In the beginning of 2001. While I was completing my degree in comunication sciences at UNS I had the opportunity to do on the job training at the sports
Tabloid â€œBolaâ€ and also at the Aantara news agency. After completing my studies I joined Antara Foto-Indonesia Press Photo Agency as a photojournalist
In 2006, and continue to work there now.

PHOTOGRAPHY for me is a miraculous tool, the stopper and freezer of time, and a media for contemplation. Regarding photographyt in Indonesia I would just
like to emphasize that we shouldnâ€™t just judge photography from the esthetic point of view. The debate and discussion about the esthetic aspect is over. We are waiting for photography to play abigger â€œroleâ€ in Indonesia so that it can bring more benefit to the people.